That bastard elf... This stuff pours a wan tawn topped by a finger or so of lightly off-white foam. The nose comprises musty orange peel, dark greens, dusty green apple, and dry biscuits. The taste brings in more of the same, with everything coming through blander, mustier. Gotta tell ya, it ain't all that satisfying. The body is a light medium, with a light moderate carbonation and a slightly watery feel. Overall, a pretty sad EIPA all-around. Straight up.

From 50 cL bottle to wine glass
Appearance: Copper pinkish color close to rose, minimal head, some lacing
Aroma: not a lot
Taste: Taste no really good
Mouthfeel: fizzy
Overall: No a really good beer, sour aftertaste, reminds me of Heineken. Not dark, which is usually expected of winter ales

A – Poured out a very light but somewhat hazy golden. Small stark white head that quickly dissipated and left spotty lacing.

S – Fruity and somewhat sweet. Grape, apple with light malt.

T – Hmm not much here in the way of taste. Almost flat taste. Grain and malt. No real sweetness. Totally devoid of flavors you would expect with the smell which was pleasant. Light alcohol at the end. Bitter.

This beer pours with a golden straw color. A nice billowy head, with good retention, leaves little lacing. The aroma is slightly metallic with just a slight hint of hops. The flavors in this beer are hard to describe because they are all so weak. Mostly the flavor of unfiltered water with a touch of apple. The finish does have a faint hop note.

Pours a clear medium amber in color with a thin off-white sudsy head. Fruity and hoppy aroma with light hints of biscuit and alcohol. The mouthfeel is medium in body. Things starts off with a sweet malty front, but that soon comes to an end as the hops take over with a crisp bitterness. Abrasive on the palate midway. A citrusy grapefruit flavor follows. The finish has a salty bitterness to it.

Between this, Very Bad Elf and Seriously Bad Elf, this one appealed the to me the least out of the three. Can't quite pinpoint why that is, but for an IPA, this was nothing special and even less so as a winter release.

The first of the four-pack I was given for X-mas. I must have been a not-so good boy. The label states there is "nearly three pounds" of hops per barrel but I can really only taste a strong malt presence. It smelled nice after settling into my snifter but the taste has much to be desired. A mild aftertaste but not harsh like some IPA's.

For the English style it was ok but I prefer the American-ized IPA. Not bad to try, but would not purchase on my own.

S- Herbal with spice are here in the smell. A very bready smell too, almost like a sour dough type bread. A buttery fragrance can be wafted from this beer. And do I detect what smells like lager yeast characteristics?

T- This is bland with a very bitter aftertaste. The spice taste is there but isn't as strong as one would find in the nose. This just plain sucks, it's boring and there is no IPA feel or taste about it. I think this beer falls very very short of what this style is supposed to be like. Unless the English don't like hoppy IPAs.

M- Too frothy and foamy in the mouth for my likes.

D- The mouthfeel loses a bunch of points for me in this category. I wouldn't buy it.

Bad Elf pours a bright straw golden color, with a small lacing head. There is a sweet, cheap grain, and adjunct aromas. The taste is the same, a cheap grainy backbone, lots of adjunct like flavors, sweet apple notes too. Light, which is good, but has a nice crisp feel. Overall its watery, plain, and not too great.

A: Pours a clear light golden with a finger of bubbly bright white head that faded into a fuzzy collar that left patches of soapy lace down the glass.
S: Toasted malts and English style grain bill mixed with earthy and leafy noble hops and a touch of spice. Bready and light smelling.
T: Bready, crackery malts, light mild hops, earthy, spicy, leafy, and peppery hop flavors, sour mash in the finish, slightly fruity aftertaste. Overall pretty standard flavors if not a bit below average. Faint apple juice.
M: Medium body with a chewy mouthfeel. Drinks clean and easy. Fizzy carbonation but it’s soft and nonintrusive.
O: Fizzy carbonation and sour mash and apple juice flavors put this one at below average for me. It wasn’t terrible, just not something I was that in to.

Pours a crystal clear light copper color with a small white head that dissipated into a small ring. The smell was almost non existant; perhaps some light hop action. The taste was of very light caramel malt, has a slightly odd sourness to it. No real hop or winter warmer spicy flavor to this brew. The feel is light but not watery, soft carbonation, finishes neutral. A very disappointing brew as an EIPA or winter warmer but a very sessionable brew with no off-putting flavors.

over-rated cha cha chachacha over-rated cha cha chachacha! Is it just me or does the entire elf series taste almost exactly the same but with more alcohol taste as it goes along? Some breweries have similar tastes in all their beer (sammy smith, het anker, rodenbach, sam adams) but those are in a good way, this one not so much. They all pour a thick yellow/orange. they all taste like rotten alcohol, and they all have a funk to them that makes it hard to drink twice in a row. it tastes like heartburn in a glass. sorry ridgeway, I am not a fan. even the winter and santas but and lump of coal have the same thin yet thick funkiness that turns me off.

Pours a clear yellow. Much lighter than I would expect from a winter ale, which brings up an interesting point; the beer label says this is a "winter ale" while BeerAdvocate says this is an English IPA, so I'm not sure which style I should be comparing this too. The aroma has some spiced scents, but not nearly as much as I would expect in a winter ale. It also have very low hops aroma as expected in an IPA.l The same can be said for the taste, it has a hint of spices and low hops flavor. The mouthfeel is nice and smooth and crisp, this is a very drinkable beer. However, no matter which style this beer is judged on I find that it falls short on flavor.

a - A orangish-copper color that is somewhat transparent. Almost no head but an insane amount of carbonation; the most I've ever seen in a beer.

s - Smells sweet, as well as piney hops, some citrus fruits.

t - Taste is alittle lacking, but hints of piney hops and some citrus fruits/orange. Not overly impressive.

m - Light body with way too much carbonation. Carbonation keeps it from being too enjoyable.

d - Overall this isn't bad, but it isn't great either. Way too much carbonation and the taste was lacking, but I could see a less carbonated bottle being easier to drink. Probably would not try and buy again.

Yeah, I really didn't dig this beer at all. it has style issues: looks like a blonde, smells like a sour and dinks like a pils. Go figure.
Pours golden in color with a fizzy white head with no carbonation.
Aroma was funky and skunky some malts and tart.
Taste seems like a pils in that it was dry and sharp.
Bought a couple of these down at the craft beer outlet and I'm a bit disappointed.

Purchased at my local Cost Plus World Market for about $5 as part of a trilogy of winter beers from England with silly holiday-themed names including Lump of Coal Stout and Rudolphs Revenge that I, being silly sometimes myself, just could not resist.

Poured a nice amber color with a tan, two-finger high head that quickly yielded to a little lacing as I sipped.

Smelled of hops, though not nearly as strong as I would have expected for a beer that claimed to be heavily hopped. There was lots of malty sweetness in the aroma as well.

Mouthfeel was smooth, with a nice carbonation.

Taste was (thankfully) not as sweet as I worried it might be, though Id have expected a little more spice (orange peel, white pepper, coriander) for a winter ale. An English ale that is not at all unpleasant, even drinkable, but not spectacular.

It has a beautiful head and lace. They are both thick and full. It has a strong grainy and hop filled. It has a malty flavor at first but becomes floral and hoppy. It seems like they used a good variety of hops. It is mildly metallic. Other than the hops it the flavor was bland. It had a medium mouthfeel and was smooth. It was a pretty average.

Pours a macro lager yellow color with a white head. The aroma is very faint, with some slight hop character. The flavor is decent, easily the best of the gimmicky Ridgeway Christmas beers. You get some English hops and malts, but it is nothing spectacular. High carbonation and thin body.

Poured a slightly reddish amber color, fairly puffy head, small but numerous bubbles. Head had good staying power, some lacing.
Smell took me back a bit. Some sticky sweetness, malt and apricot, but mostly I smelled a skunkiness to it. Like a watered down Moosehead.
Taste wasn't skunked, thankfully. A more-complex-than-simple lager taste. Slightly roasted malt, sweetness, molasses hints and tangerine cues. I didn't taste much hops, but I think they calmed the sweetness down a bit.
better drank cold; as it warmed it allowed the alcohol to seep through, not a pleasant aftertaste.
Better than average, but not worth the $5/bottle.

This pours a dark bronze with a 2 finger head that disappears quickly.The mixture of malt and hops make this a nice smelling beer.However,this mixture is a little tough on the taste buds.This is very malty and very hoppy.Together,this makes a beer that is not very balanced at all.I think if they cut back alittle this would be better tasting.The m/f is medium and very unbalanced.This is not a bad beer,but the hype doesn't live up to the taste.

As IPA's are not my favorite, I was expecting to recoil at first taste. However, either my palate has calmed or this beer is better than some IPA's I've tasted in the past.

The color is that of a grilled cheese sandwich with teeny-tiny bubbles fighting their way to the respectable white head.

Like most reviewers wrote, it's got a fruity aroma that seems more spring-like than winter. I could see drinking this on the beach. I don't quite care for the metallic bitterness that seems to linger a bit too long, but not a bad beer.